A few comments and thoughts about crime books set on the mainland of Europe, with titbits about real eurocrime. We hear so much about crime in the USA that many people imagine that Europe is a crime free zone. In crime fiction Europe has become a real challenger to the Americans, but unfortunately real life crime especially in Britain is increasing as well.

Friday, August 14, 2009

SWEDISH WALLANDER ON BBC: THE TRICKSTERS

The latest episode of the Swedish Wallanders on BBC4 was number 7 in series one, The Tricksters.

This was a curious episode and one that for once was more about space than race with some marvelous shots of the beautiful sparsely populated rural landscape around Ystad. Of course there was the one regulation anti immigration neo-Nazi lunatic as this seems to be a compulsory component of the series. This enabled Stefan to completely lose his professional detachment and play the tough cop, while in a sub-plot Kurt loses his cool and gets romantically involved with a married female psychiatrist, Ania.

The main plot involves the vulnerability of lonely women to a charming but evil trickster, who is a horse dealer with a serious gambling problem. The contrast to the lonely Kurt drifting, or being dragged, into his relationship with Ania was clever, but this particular episode didn't quite work for me and showed some of the limitations of a 90 minute television program compared with the depth possible in a 300 page book.

I may be becoming a bit more critical as the novelty of the series wears off, but my recorder is definitely set for future episodes.